Women spend three times as much time as men planning household chores

Throughout the day, Catalan women dedicate 1.17 hours more to housework and caregiving than men. However, they also bear the burden of planning and organizing everything that needs to be done for the home and family: what to buy, what to cook for dinner, and coordinating pick-up times for children or grandparents. While the gap has narrowed in recent years, this is not because men are becoming more involved in managing household chores, but rather because they have reduced their time spent on these tasks. According to the 2024 Time Use Survey of Catalonia, published this Thursday by the Statistical Institute of Catalonia using European standards, women dedicate 3 hours and 17 minutes daily to these types of tasks, compared to 2 hours for men, "which maintains an inequality of over 64%."

The unequal distribution of work is most evident in what is called mental workload, that is, the responsibility for organizing and anticipating daily tasks, which continues to fall disproportionately on women. Based on survey data, it is noted that 60% of women plan weekday menus, 54% organize the daily shopping, and 62% are in charge of household cleaning—percentages that are almost three times higher than those of men.

Regarding childcare, 60% of women prepare daily laundry, and half keep track of school and medical appointments; tasks that only between 5% and 11% of men assume, according to the study, which demonstrates that co-responsibility "is not progressing at the same pace as the reduction of the time gap."

Co-responsibility and studies

Educational attainment has a particular impact on the planning of household chores. Specifically, 72% of women with primary education or less report that they are responsible for planning meals on weekdays, while only 22% of men with this level of education report doing so. Among those with higher education, the percentage of women who claim to plan this task drops to 53%, while the percentage of men rises to 25%. The survey also reveals that, on average, the Catalan population over 10 years old spends 71 minutes a day on social media, a figure to which must be added the 36 minutes spent using instant messaging (WhatsApp, for example). In contrast, the time dedicated to family social life is 43 minutes. Among young people aged 10 to 24, the combined time spent on social media and instant messaging rises to 2 hours and 11 minutes per day.